(“Insiders”...always...overestimate the radicalism of what theyʼre up to.)

I just begged you to...Measure Weirdness by quantitatively evaluating your Portfolio/Roster of

damn near everything. Now Iʼm going to go back on my word. (Partially.) Measure? Yes! But

have an outsider do it, or at least have an outsider evaluate your evaluation.

My experience is all too clear. (And common.) I talk to a 25-year company veteran, at his firmʼs

executive level. He glows with excitement about, say, his new supply chain initiative. He barely

notices that Iʼve dozed off in the middle of his recitation. That is, his measuring rod was fash-
ioned by 25 years of internal experience. Mine was fashioned by 25 years of external experi-
ence. Iʼm not diminishing at all the degree to which heʼs stuck his neck out to champion this

idea. Itʼs just that to me itʼs quite timid by contrast with the most incredibly interesting stuff

Iʼve stumbled across in industries far, far distant from his. The idea-concern holds on every

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parameter. His idea (perception, sculpted by his 25 years in one bureaucracy) of a “risky”

candidate for a top job is my idea of a “ho-hum” candidate...who should be discarded in a

flash. And so on.

Think about it. (Are you really as “far out” as you think?)

19. Action...ALWAYS...takes precedence.

Talk about not changing with the times! This was Idea No. 1 from In Search of Excellence

in 1982. It remains in the Top Spot two decades later. Except that my plea is more strident

than it was 20 years ago.

The notion from Search: We put too much emphasis on analysis, too little emphasis on

“gettinʼ on with gettinʼ on.”

I could extend this section, just one of 60 in this relatively brief paper, for pages upon

pages. (Upon more pages.) Some people like to talk about stuff. Some (other) people like

to try stuff. Some people lick their wounds after a setback. (Or worse yet, initiate the blame

game.) Some (other) people “get back on the horse” (or find another horse) and go ridinʼ

again. (As for the blame game thing, the issue for me is selfish. My energy is far too pre-
cious to waste a single droplet on emotionally draining acts of recrimination.)

Itʼs almost funny. (If the stakes werenʼt so damned high.) The Action Faction is completely

flummoxed by the Memo Maniacs. AFs (Action Factioneers) are unable to sit still, to stay off

the field, to delay the next step. (Sometimes their impatient rush to action causes prob-
lems. True. But...far fewer problems than the Ponder Partnersʼ generic failure to act at all.)

need to see-it-to-believe-it. Or, early on, see-it-to-become-inflamed-by-the-potential-of-
it. We donʼt need a lecture on TQM. We need the palpable, compelling story-of-42-year-old-
born-again-Charlie-the-distributioncenter-boss-who-reluctantly-but-wholeheartedly-em-
braced-the-“quality-thing”-and-made-a-miracle-in-Padooka. To only partially coin a phrase,

one snapshot of Reluctant Charlie-turned-Demo-Hero is worth a thousand CEO exhortations

Bottom line: There is an enormous opportunity to “get the health/health care quality/well-
ness/universal access/rationing ʻthingʼ right.” One hopes it will streak to the top of the na-
tional agenda—especially as our 80 million cantankerous Boomers (see No. 28 above) experi-
ence the acceleration of aches and pains.

30. Q: What are we selling?

A: “Experiences” and “solutions,” far more

than “top quality” and “satisfaction.”

Message: the Traditional value-added equation is being set on its ear.

The “M” in IBM, obviously, stands for “Machines.” But IBM makes damn few machines today.

It mostly “makes”...“experiences” and “solutions.” Under the guidance of CEOs Lou Gerstner

and Sam Palmisano, a single IBM division, IBM Global Services, rapidly grew from a pittance

to about $40 billion. IBM today is a software-services-consulting-solutions company. It

has more in common with Cirque du Soleil than Caterpillar Tractor. (Whoops, CAT now sells

services and solutions...not to mention its licensed shoes and shirts and jackets!) In short,

the “bedrock” of “national economic excellence” (Japanese-style, German-style) has been

and (the old, at least) EDS and (the new) UPS drive the business. Drive it from HR (the

pursuit and nurturing of top talent) to creating “aesthetically pleasing” business process-
es...that offer zip and zing across the entire customer interface/experience.

Design, then, is the calculated construction of...the total-persona-that-the-enterprise-
presents (and present it does, every microsecond) to all of its stakeholders and constitu-
ents, internal and external, virtual and real.

Okay?

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32. Branding is for...EVERYONE.

Whoever has...THE BEST STORY...takes home the most marbles. “Branding?” “Branding is a

character issue. Next question?” It is almost that simple. And, thus, that hard.

Iʼm a branding fanatic. But not a branding “expert.” I acknowledge the power of a great

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence

become the domain of computers, society will place new value on the one human abil-
ity that canʼt be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual—the language of emo-
tion—will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how well we work with

others...Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will

need to understand that their products are less important than their stories.”

— Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

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Howard Gardner, the renowned Harvard professor, insists that the primary key to leadership

is storytelling skills, the ability to encase a mere “message” in a saga that moves dozens, or

millions, to commitment and action. Thatʼs what a Brand is, too: a great story, a saga, a case

for character...that makes me reach for Morton salt and the image of the little girl with the

umbrella, rather than the store brand. Branding—the individual, the one-person consultancy,

or the corporate megalith—is the pinnacle of enterprise accomplishment. Brand = What

Matters About Me/We.

33. “Dramatic Difference” =

Only Difference worthy of the name.

Hanging in tough against the forces of conformity, from kindergarten to the grave, is the

ultimate litmus test for the individual—and the obvious point of difference for everyone who

makes it into the local or global, military or mercantile history books. In the business world,

marketing and new products guru Doug Hall has put the calipers around this idea, which he

labels “dramatic difference.”

Hallʼs book Jump Start Your Business Brain pivots around three “Laws of Marketing Physics,”

the last of which is the Law of Dramatic Difference. When a firm is evaluating a potential

product, it often asks panels of prospective purchasers two key questions:

1. “Would you buy this?”

2. “How ʻdifferentʼ/ʻuniqueʼ is it?”

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Hall notes that business decision makers, evaluating the results of such a survey, invariably

pay far (FAR!) more attention to the pragmatic “Would you buy?” than to the more ephemeral

“degree of difference.” Alas, our execs get it all wrong. The response to the “degree of differ-
ence” query is a far better predictor of subsequent marketplace success than the “Would you

Also-rans merely have a collection of “completed assignments”...worthy of survival in yester-
dayʼs world. Thence, to “take charge of your life” (the capital idea of this point) means first to

take...Immediate Charge of Your Current Project.

Turning the volume up a notch, I urge you on or about 12/31/04 to begin drafting your First

Annual Report (Tom in 2004, complete with tag line: “The Year of Design,” or some such).

In my companyʼs training for Brand You, our approach to this begins with a “Personal Brand

Equity Evaluation,” which consists of the following six items:

1. I am known for [two to three things];

next year at this time Iʼll be known for [one more thing].

2. My current project is challenging me in the following [two ways].

3. New things Iʼve learned in the last 90 days include [two items].

“If there is nothing very special about your work...

you won’t get noticed, and that means

you won’t get paid much, either.”

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4. My public “recognition program” consists of [one item].

5. Important additions to my Rolodex in the last 90 days include

[one to two names].

6. My resume is...discernibly different...from last yearʼs at this time

[in one or two ways].

Incidentally, another angle we take on this is more or less forcing people to imagine that the

other shoe drops...and to prepare a one-eighth or one-quarter page electronic Yellow Pages

ad for...themselves.

Bottom line: You are a damn fool if you donʼt assume that 36 months from now youʼll be

looking for a job...and given the nature of the change that surrounds us, youʼd best have a

beaut of a story to tell.

The...Story of You.

Turning the volume up a notch, I urge you on or about

12/31/04 to begin drafting your First AnnualReport.

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44. Powerlessness is a State of Mind!

(Think King. Think Gandhi. Think de Gaulle.)

I have a clear belief: Powerlessness is an advantage, not a disadvantage. Why? Because “pow-
erless” people work in nooks and crannies, and are invisible enough to be able to surrepti-
tiously pursue contrarian strategies.

loveliness...poetry in motion...kindliness...benevolence...benefactor...compassion...beauty.

To be sure (youʼll see it in this paper, I presume), I believe in the rough and tumble of com-
petitive business. After all, Iʼm a Technicolor Guy. But I also believe that a passion for chang-
ing the world is no excuse for running roughshod over oneʼs fellows.

Ah, yes, grace.

Does it have any place in business? Foolish question, Iʼd say. Of course it does.